Profile

Biography

I joined York Law School in 2009, having completed an AHRC funded PhD at the University of Liverpool and taken part in two research projects on retirement migration funded by the Spanish Ministry for Employment & Social Affairs and Age Concern. These looked at the access to welfare services for post-retirement EU migrants.

Prior to the PhD, I completed the LLM in Law at the University of Leeds, where I undertook research assistance work on the EU constitutional treaty. My first degree was Social & Political Sciences, at the University of Cambridge. As a graduate I have volunteered and been employed with different Citizens Advice offices, and have since integrated case work and supervision into both research and teaching.

Research

Overview

EU policies on social security coordination, migration, citizenship, labour law and asylum

The implications of Brexit for women and children

The implications of Brexit for EU nationals' rights

Theories of equality and fundamental rights

Welfare law, policy and reform

Feminist and sociolegal analyses of all the above

PhD supervision: I welcome applications from prospective research students in these and related areas; please get in touch if you would like to discuss a proposal.

Projects

The EU rights project

I was awarded an ESRC future research leaders grant for the EU Rights Project which ran until mid 2017. It was an innovative legal action research project, in which I worked with Craven & Harrogate Districts Citizens Advice to set up a specialist advice and advocacy service on EU welfare claims. While advising and representing clients, I conducted a parallel study of administrative obstacles we encountered. This 'advice led ethnography' is a new way to interrogate EU law. It combines socio-legal studies with theoretical, philosophical and historical work on EU social law. It yielded very rich data, revealing and challenging injustices that would otherwise have gone unnoticed.

The major output from the project is the monograph, Unity in Adversity: EU Citizenship, Social Justice and the Cautionary Tale of the UK (Oxford: Hart, 2017). which draws upon the case studies to demonstrate political, legal and administrative obstacles to justice faced by EU nationals in the UK.

'Doctrinal mastery. Intellectual rigour. Conceptual depth. Empirical enrichment. O'Brien's landmark text offers its readers all of these qualities. But she also writes with a clarity and honesty of purpose that is an inspiration to her readers. Particularly at a time when certain political actors seek to vilify “expertise”, Unity in Adversity is a testament to the value of independent and critical academic research.'Professor Michael Dougan, University of Liverpool

Brexit

Drawing upon the findings in the EU Rights Project I've been able to contribute to the debates and analysis of Brexit documents and processes.

I was invited to give evidence on the EU Withdrawal Bill at an oral session of the house of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee. The video of the session is available here.

My evidence has been cited on the floor of the House of Commons, by Stephen Timms MP on the 12 October (column 521).

And at length by Joanna Cherry MP, Seema Malhotra MP and Stephen Timms MP during the European Union (Withdrawal Bill) debate, on 21 November 2017, columns911-921.

Stephen Timms MP has further referred to my evidence in an oral submission before the Committee for Exiting the European Union (para Q203):

My evidence was drawn upon heavily in the final report of the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee on the European Union (Withdrawal Bill), published 17 November 2017.

I have submitted written evidence to the House of Commons Exiting the European Union Committee on the progress of the exit negotiations, specifically on the rights of EU citizens in the UK.

I have given presentations to the London Assembly, the Public Law Project conference, and the Hart Judicial Review conference on Brexit, free movement and EU nationals' rights.

This is all very much ongoing research, not least since keeping up with negotiations and new documents is a job in itself. I am currently working on several publications on the implications of Brexit for EU nationals' rights, for free movement and EU citizenship, and for women's rights.

C.O'Brien, 'Union citizenship and disability: restricted access to equality rights and the attitudinal model of disability' in D. Kochenov (ed)EU Citizenship and Federalism: The Role of Rights (Cambridge University Press, 2017) p. 509-539

C. O'Brien '"Hand-to-mouth” citizenship: decision time for the UK Supreme Court on the substance of Zambrano rights, EU citizenship and equal treatment' (2016) 38(2) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law, 228-245

C. O'Brien 'The pillory, the precipice and the slippery slope: the profound effects of the UK’s legal reform programme targeting EU migrants' (2015) 37(1) Journal of Social Welfare and Family Law 111-136

C.O'Brien 'The EU Rights Project' (2015) 167, Adviser, 8-11

C.O'Brien 'Driving Down Disability Equality?' (2014) 21(4) Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law 724-738

C.O'Brien ‘I trade, therefore I am: legal personhood in the European Union’ (2013) 50(6) Common Market Law Review 1643-1684

C. O'Brien 'From Safety Nets and Carrots to Trampolines and Sticks: National Uses of the EU as Both Menace and Model to Help Neoliberalize Welfare Policy' in D. Sciek (ed) The EU Economic and Social Model in Crisis: Interdisciplinary Perspectives (Ashgate, 2013)

Teaching

Undergraduate

External activities

Memberships

Analytical expert, European Commission's Free Movement and Social Security network of experts.

Fressco reports:

O’Brien, Spaventa and De Coninck, “The concept of worker under Article 45 TFEU and certain non-standard forms of employment”, FreSsco Comparative Report, European Commission (2015) available at <www.ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=15476&langId=en>.

Overmeiren, O'Brien, Spaventa, Jorens & Schulte "The notions of obstacle and discrimination under EU law on free movement of workers" Fressco Analytical report, European Commission (2014) available at <http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=13535&langId=en>

Cases Editor, Journal of Social Security Law

Trustee, Welfare Benefit Unit

Peer reviewer for the ESRC

Peer reviews, e.g.: European Law Review; European Journal of Social Security Law; Routledge; Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law